More Rights,Less Power: Labor Standards and Labor Markets in East European Post-communist States

This paper examines changes in labor markets and labor rights for 13 post-communist states of East Central Europe and the Former Soviet Union. It focuses on the simultaneous pressures to increase the flexibility of labor markets and improve labor standards in the years since the collapse of communism. Comparative measures and patterns of both de jure and de facto standards and flexibility are presented, and the roles of key institutional promoters of change are analyzed. I find that a combination of democratic regime type and European Union accession has pulled East European states toward the strengthening of collective labor rights. The effect is strongest on the states that joined the EU in 2004, weaker for those joining in 2007, while the three post-Soviet, non-accession states remain significantly more labor-repressive. Labor market flexibilization has been a more uniform trend in the post-communist region. In the context of this project’s inter-regional comparisons, contemporary Eastern Europe has the strongest labor rights. At the same time, the decline of trade unions and limits of collective bargaining in most post-communist states undermine the effectiveness of transposed EU legislation and bargaining institutions in empowering labor. As shown by the exceptional case of Slovenia, strong unions are necessary to fully enforce rights.     

Federal-employee unions and workforce 2000

Federal-employee unions face many challenges, including coping with the changes implied by Workforce 2000. These changes, coupled with economic and budgetary constraints, should raise the demand for federal sector unionism per se, but unions are hamstrung in their ability to take advantage of the situation. The law regulating labor relations among federal employees weakens the power and hence appeal of unions. The principal federal unions may employ several strategies to take advantage of Workforce 2000, including political activism, but their relative capacities to do so are limited. The American Federation of Government Employees and the National Federation of Federal Employees in particular have massive free-riding problems which strain their ability to serve represented employees.     

New Unionism? Teacher Unions,Social Partnership and School Governance in England and Wales

Abstract

In the post-war period teacher unions in England and Wales have experienced considerable turbulence regarding their participation in the structures of system governance. Participation in governance had traditionally been conducted through the processes of collective bargaining until the abolition of national negotiating rights in 1987. After an extended period of exclusion from governance networks this situation was reversed in 2003 following the establishment of a ‘social partnership’ between employers and education unions. This article draws on data from the Economic and Social Research Council funded project ‘Workforce remodelling, teacher trade unions and school-based industrial relations’ to assess the significance of the social partnership for system governance. It combines empirical data from England and Wales with research frameworks drawing on teacher union research in the USA to contrast social partnership with collective bargaining and to assess whether social partnership working represented a genuinely new approach to governance and, in turn, a form of ‘new unionism’.     

Federal service 2000: Staff training and labor-management cooperation

Despite general agreement about what it takes to move workforces into the 21st Century, the Federal Government is not well-advanced in utilizing labor-management collaboration to facilitate human captital development. A content analysis of a representative sample of Federal collective bargaining agreements covering more than 1 million workers and other data are used as indicators that the national government and its unions are in the very earliest stages of advancement concerning joint determination in training program design, implementation, and evaluation. Legal constraints are identified as one possible obstacle to greater cooperation. It is concluded that the parties have strong mutual interests in greater collaboration and that programs such as Total Quality Management (TQM) may serve to establish the necessary foundation for such interactions in the future.     

RESULTS OF OPINION SURVEYS RELATED TO KENTUCKY'S CHILD LABOR LAWS

ABSTRACT

The authors conducted a study, commissioned by the Child Labor Task Force of the Kentucky Labor Cabinet, of attitudes, opinions, and understandings of the Commonwealth's child labor laws and regulations. Questionnaires were distributed to businesses, unions, students, teachers, and parents. The purpose of the study was to identify problems and concerns with Kentucky's current child labor statutes and regulations. However, based on broad census data, Kentucky is demographically typical of Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia. With the whole U.S. and the several states each having an under 18 years-of-age population of about 25–30 percent, Kentucky child labor experience is likely indicative of the entire U.S.

This article presents the results of the survey including: where, why and how much students work; the impact of work on school; child labor law violations; and workplace safety and health concerns. Moreover, recommendations for legislative change and further study are presented.

Findings indicate that students tend to work in the service industry, with approximately one-half of these employed in restaurants and the remainder in retail or other services. Nearly one-quarter of students are employed in school-related programs including co-op, pre-apprenticeship or school-to-work programs. All but 17 percent work both during the school week and on weekends. Many are working “for money and to pay bills” related to cars, car insurance and spending money.

Survey responses and prevailing research indicate a negative impact of too much work on school suggesting the need for re-instituting school-issued work permits. In addition, given that nearly 20 percent of all students responding indicate that they have sought medical care for workplace injuries, and only 37 percent of employers believe that their minor employees understand occupational safety and health rules, key findings suggest an immediate need for re-assessing worker and employer training and education.     

Federal labor relations 2000: Introduction to the symposium

Numerous problems confront federal labor management relations as we approach the year 2000. The legal structure, Title VII of the CSRA of 1978, is under heavy fire from the unions and other quarters. The perennial federal fiscal crisis has regularized retrenchment strategies and damaged the economic standing of unions and their members. The highly restricted scope of bargaining with most of the federal sector and the continuing push for contracting out also grieves the unions. Yet change comes slowly, if at all. This symposium addresses the calls for reform of the legal framework for federal labor relations.     

Drug testing in the public sector: The role of unions

Not surprisingly, unions have traditionally played an active role in employee drug testing. And, although the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of drug testing in two 1989 decisions, unions have continued to wage challenges to urinalysis under the U.S. Constitution and in the labor arena. As this research shows, federal as well as state and local government unions have had some success in challenging the categories of employees targeted for testing, good faith bargaining over drug testing, and due process and equity violations around testing.     

Divergent Outcomes of Labor Reform Politics in Democratized Korea and Taiwan

This article seeks to explain the conditions that determine the divergent fates of union actors under democratic governments by examining union activism around four labor reform episodes (union rights recognition, wage increases, workweek reductions, and job protection/anti-privatization) in democratized Korea and Taiwan. This study first describes that labor reform politics in these two new democracies involved contrasting processes and produced divergent outcomes. Korean unions that have resorted to contentious mobilization have been more successful in areas where their sheer mobilizing strength matters (such as company-level bargaining of wages and other material benefits), but less successful in national policy reforms. On the contrary, Taiwanese unions have been more effective in securing labor policy concessions, while obtaining less drastic changes at the company-level gains. This article contends that these divergent outcomes for unions’ gains would not have been possible without the differences they faced in the degree of permeability within their respective formal political institutions and partisan interests that draw these unions into these labor reform politics.

Patriarchal unions = weaker unions? Industrial relations in the Asian garment industry

This paper explores how gender ideologies shape industrial relations in the Asian garment industry. Drawing on ethnographic research, it illustrates how widespread norm perceptions of acquiescent women and assertive men reinforce patriarchal, authoritarian unions. Even if privately critical, women may be reluctant to protest if they anticipate social disapproval. Such beliefs reinforce patriarchal unions, curbing women workers’ collective analysis, engagement, and activism. This weakens the collective power of labour to push for better working conditions. Tackling norm perceptions and building more inclusive unions may help strengthen the labour movement.     

Policy guidelines for collective bargaining and family planning

The benfits of establishing family planning through collective bargaining to both labor and management are discussed. Until workers can be convinced that their children will receive health care, education and employment, and that they will be economically secure in old age, it is difficult to convince them of the many benefits of child spacing and small family size. In 1953, it was calculated by management in a Japanese steel factory that about 70% of all acidents could be attributable to difficulties in the private lives of employees. In order to ease problems in the home, collective agreements were initiated by management in the Nippon Express Company to provide family planning services. Labor agreed as long as the workers were to share in the economic awards which came from participation. Costs of implementing the family planning programs were fully offset by the decrease in expenditure on family allowances, confinement, nursing, and so on. In India some ten estates began a program in which a certain amount of money is paid into an account for every month that a woman does not become pregnant. If the woman becomes pregnant, she forfeits a substantial amount of the fund. This money comes directly from the funds which would normally have to be set aside to provide for maternity and child support programs. Certain guidelines are presented in the paper to outline the areas of responsibility of labor and management in the provision of family planning services. Among the many possibilities mentioned is the idea that both labor and management could look into the conceivability of plowing back a portion of whatever savings are accrued by management into a pension scheme to compensate workers for the loss of labor caused by having fewer children than were previously anticipated.     

International Institutions and Workers’ Rights: Between Labor Standards and Market Flexibility

International financial institutions (IFIs) like the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank often have used the leverage afforded them through their loan mechanisms to demand domestic labor market flexibility. At the same time, the International Labour Organization’s call to respect Core Labor Standards (CLS) in the global economy has increasingly gained acceptance since 1998. CLS that sanction freedom of association and collective bargaining have been particularly emphasized by the ILO since these are collective rights that enable the exercise of other rights. While IFIs have generally held to free market principles, new research findings and international pressure has led the IMF and World Bank to be more open to the idea of core labor standards. Implementation has often lagged, but some advances have been made. This includes the World Bank’s commitment to ensure respect for CLS through its private sector lending arm. Yet to be seen is whether these policy shifts will lead to greater respect for labor standards or whether the continuation of market-oriented reforms will further undermine labor’s collective power, creating new challenges for future resistance.     

Medical alert: sexual harassment in the health care industry

Sexual harassment is an illegal form of sexual discrimination prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Although the U. S. Supreme Court has recognized that sexual harassment is illegal conduct for which an employer is liable, this transgression continues to be a major workplace problem. Although some researchers have analyzed the incident level of sexual harassment in general, little work has been conducted on particular industries.

The research described in this article is the summary of the results of a study of sexual harassment in the health care industry. A written survey was sent to 950 randomly selected members of the Kentucky Board of Nursing. Thirty-five percent of the 441 respondents to the survey indicated they had been sexually harassed in their capacity as nurses. More than 77 percent of those occurrences involved physicians as the harassers. When harassed, 51 percent of the respondents were aged 25 to 35; 25 percent, 25 or younger; 20 percent, 36 to 45; and 4 percent were 46 to 55. Fifty-three percent said they were harassed by supervisors; 32 percent said they were harassed by patients.

The survey showed that 23 percent of those harassed felt threatened in their job status if they did not go along with harassing behavior, and 24 percent reported the incidents. Only 23 percent of the nurses indicated that their employers had policies and procedures in place to address sexual harassment. Further, of the respondents that reported being sexually harassed, only 23 percent of these victims reported the incidents.

Sexual harassment complaints in the health care industry must be taken seriously. Health care institutions must adopt appropriate policies and procedures to address sexual harassment. The written policy statement on sexual harassment should show strong support from top management, specify the types of behavior perceived as sexual harassment, and be widely disseminated. Training should be provided to all staff, and effective enforcement mechanisms should be implemented.     

Are Workers in the Developing World Winners or Losers in the Current Era of Globalization?

This article investigates whether workers in less-developed countries (LDC) are winners or losers in the expanding global economy. This study is distinctive in that it looks beyond the impact of globalization on direct economic benefits to labor (employment and surplus labor) and assesses if workers simultaneously improve their bargaining power in the marketplace. I use a time-series cross sectional panel data set for 59 developing countries from 1972 to 1997 to demonstrate that the overall impact of globalization on labor has been different in countries at various levels of economic development. These results challenge conventional wisdom by revealing that under conditions of globalization, labor in low-income countries is not necessarily in a better bargaining position despite certain economic gains. In contrast, labor in high-income countries enjoys both greater economic benefits and an improved bargaining position. The absolute “winners” in globalization ultimately comprise a small percentage of the larger labor force in the developing world. Nita Rudra is an assistant professor of international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include the impact of globalization on social welfare expenditures in developing countries, the political foundations of welfare regimes, and the causes and effects of democracy. Her most recent works appear in theAmerican Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, International Organization, andInternational Studies Quarterly. The author is grateful to Hayward Alker for valuable advice and input on this research project and James McGuire for generously providing access to his data. The SCID editors and anonymous reviewers also provided extremely helpful feedback and comments.     

Multilateral health care negotiations: the shadow at the bargaining table

Third-party payers and state regulatory agencies play a major role in health care negotiations. Third-party payer impact arises because of the significant amount of revenue provided to health institutions by these revenue sources. This article reviews the process by which third-party payers and state regulatory agencies affect health care negotiations and the outcomes experienced under these arrangements. The author describes the multilaterial bargaining structure of health care negotiations and illustrates this relationship through recent hospital bargaining in New York City.     

From ‘Unilateral’ to ‘Dialogical’: Determinants of EU–Azerbaijan Negotiations

Abstract

The European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan have negotiated three different agreements for a new legal basis underpinning their relationship since 2010. Whereas the EU tries to adhere to a more unilateral approach, Azerbaijan wants cooperation to take place on a more inclusive, dialogical, basis. The essay will present a model of ‘bargaining power’ to analyse how the Azerbaijani government has tried to enforce this, and to what degree it has been successful. It finds that the bargaining power model can explain some of the changing power dynamics in EU–Azerbaijan relations, and that these might speak to the broader Eurasian region too.     

The literature on local government contracting out

Privatisation of Local Government Services, Jill Walker and Roger Moore, Workers’ Educational Association, 1983, pp. 24, 90p.

Public Jobs for Private Profit: Fighting Contractors in Wandsworth, Dave Benlow, Peter Ramage, Mike French, Dave Simmonds and Dexter Whitfield, Wandsworth Trade Union Publications, pp. 64, £1.40.

Contracting Out in the Public Sector, Keith Hartley, Cyril Tomkins, Cecil Rix, Brian Whitworth, Clifford Smith, Leslie Paine, RIPA, 1984, pp. 59, £3.50.

Fighting Privatisation: The Victory in Gloucester, Tony Williams, Institute for Workers’ Control, 1983, pp. 44, 90.

A Review of Private Approaches for Delivery of Public Services, Harry Hatry, The Urban Institute Press, 1983, pp. 105.

Hands off Bury's Bins! Manchester Employment Research Group, Bury Joint Trade Union Committee, 1983, pp. 32.

Contractors’ Failures: The Privatisation Experience, TUC, 1984, pp. 38, £2.00.     

Can a developing democracy benefit from labour repression? Evidence from Sri Lanka

While a growing body of academic literature casts doubt on the wisdom of authoritarian responses to labour in developing democracies, few empirical studies demonstrate the adverse effects of excluding organised labour from the policy arena or repressing trade unions in the industrial relations arena. This paper draws on the recent history of state–labour relations in Sri Lanka to help fill this gap. Beginning in the late 1970s, the Sri Lankan government adopted a labour-repressive export-oriented strategy of development. The author shows how the repression of private sector unions during this period destroyed the legitimacy of traditional left unions and the structure of institutionalised bargaining that was in place prior to Sri Lanka's authoritarian period. This erosion of the system of institutionalised bargaining eventually led workers to shift their support to more radical, ‘new left’ unions and culminated in a wave of extreme and violent forms of protest that chased away much needed foreign direct investment. The chaotic consequences of the labour repression suggest two primary conclusions: (a) that prior democratic mobilisation may make labour repression untenable over the long term; and (b) that repression may backfire, creating bursts of highly visible and destabilising protest that undermine the developmental objectives of neoliberal reforms.     

Reduction in Force—Benefit or Detriment? A Look at Some Tangible and Intangible Results of Federal Sector Reductions in Force (RIF)

Abstract

Through a review of some of the tangible and intangible results of Federal reduction in force (RIF), this article demonstrates that while the use of RIF procedures has resulted in a smaller Federal civilian workforce, it is a cumbersome and expensive process which negatively impacts the reputation of the Federal government as an employer. At one time, the Federal government was a model, progressive employer. Repeated RIFs have made the government a less desirable employer. This is an important loss, not only to Federal employees, but to the entire American workplace. If government cannot attract and retain a quality workforce in a stable environment, then critical programs cannot help but be negatively impacted.     

Organized labor under military rule: the Nigerian labor movement, 1985–1992

This article examines the recent evolution of state-labor relations in Nigeria. The research indicates that the present military regime has maintained neocorporatist relations within the labor movement in order to limit union demands concerning political reform and economic restructuring. In addition, the study claims that the relative exclusion of organized labor from the reform process has undermined union support for the regime’s program of political liberalization. John P. Tuman is a lecturer in the department of labor studies and industrial relations and in the department, of political science at Pennsylvania State University. Currently, he is working on a study of unions and restructuring in the Mexican automobile industry. His other research interests include comparative industrial relations and the politics of developing areas.